The reigning Miss World, the Chinese beauty Zi Lin Zhang, is to be the Guest of Honour at the first ever World Travel Awards Asia and Indian Ocean Ceremony in Shanghai on Thursday 19 June.Zi Lin Zhang, who comes from Shi Jia Zhuang City in Hei Bei Province, will be presenting some of the key awards at the prestigious “Oscars of the Travel Industry” event.

The awards will recognise the ‘best of the best’ travel companies and operators. It is being held in partnership with Asia Luxury Travel Market and the swissộtel GRAND, Shanghai.

As the World Travel Awards event team rolled into town to make final arrangements before the big day, tourism chiefs greeted their arrival with delight.

Mr. Dao Shuming, Chairman, Shanghai Municipal Tourism Administrative Commission said: “We feel deeply proud that the World Travel Awards has chosen to host its inaugural Asia and Indian Ocean Ceremony in our city of Shanghai. This prestigious event acknowledges the cream of the travel industry - those players who are setting new boundaries in travel excellence - so we are delighted and honoured to be associated.”

The winners can expect massive international profile and acclaim worldwide.

“There are many travel and tourism awards and industry competitions”, said Graham Cooke, President and Founder of the World Travel Awards, “but none are more important - or more influential - than the World Travel Awards. They offer the winners an opportunity at the very highest level to promote themselves on a global stage.”

“The awards have been described by the respected Wall Street Journal as the ‘Oscars’ of the travel industry. But it is perhaps more appropriate here in Shanghai to call it the ‘Olympics’ of the travel industry!”

He explained that over the past 15 years, as the World Travel Awards have became recognised and valued worldwide as a supreme symbol of excellence, they are now much sought after.

“The winners are able to display the official World Travel Awards symbol with pride on their sales and marketing literature, increasingly offering travellers a cast-iron assurance that what they are buying is an excellent customer experience.

The man charged with hosting this spectacular evening is well known television presenter, Varun Sharma who has presented programmes for both BBC World News and Bloomberg TV.

The Asian and Indian Ocean Ceremony is part of a World Travel Awards Grand Tour with regional awards staged throughout the world, ending with a Grand Final at Turks & Caicos in the Caribbean on 12 December 2008.

Nominations for the World Travel Awards Asian and Indian Ocean Ceremony 2008 can be found by logging on to www.worldtravelawards.com.
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